?Govt unlikely to meet 11th Plan power capacity addition target?

?The ambitious Eleventh Plan target of creating additional power capacity of 78,000 MW is unlikely to be achieved by the end of the Plan period, says Mr Surya P Sethi, Advisor (Power), Planning Commission, adding that ?we should be grateful if we can achieve even 40-50 per cent of this.?

Addressing at the plenary on ?Gearing up the power Sector? on the second day of the 19th SKOCH Summit 2009 here today, Mr Sethi said that the main reasons for this were the lack of adequate capacity addition and equipment manufacturing facilities, skilled manpower and fuel and other infrastructure related issues.

According to him, it was important that we change the existing development paradigm, looking at the power sector from the demand side rather than the supply perspective. Further, he advocated a greater role for professionals in managing the power sector, saying that they would bring in increased stability and more technical skills to the decision-making process.

Stressing on the point that the current pricing structure was heavily distorted, Mr Sethi said that there was an urgent need for creating a market for long-term debt to enable more funding agencies to boost capacity additions. He also said that the government should promote the development of suitable energy and power trading markets, for which it was essential that a level-playing field was created for all players, including the private sector.

Pointing to the role that the IT industry could play in the power sector, Mr Karan Bajwa, Group Director- Public Sector, Microsoft Corporation, said that IT should be seen as a transformation tool rather than as a support structure. He said IT could help the power sector optimize its resources, cut costs, reduce the downtime and enable capacity building.

On his part, Mr Sidhartha Mathur of KPMG said that distribution remained the weakest link in the country?s power sector. Emphasising the need for putting in place a suitable energy auditing system, he said that before this it was essential to have in place a suitable measurement and metering system. This would enable the authorities to suitably monitor the transmission and distribution losses.

However, noted economist Atanu Dey said that the time had come for the government to shift attention from fossil fuels for energy generation to solar power. He was certain that given the necessary support, both in terms of policy and funding, solar power could emerge as a major energy source in the coming days.